July 24,

I awoke at 0800. But that is okay since we didn’t get to bed until 0030. Anyway we got around and went out to round up breakfast. We went to the closest “supermarket,” this was what they called themselves. It was okay as we found what we needed. With our stuff we went back to our place and had breakfast of yogurt and what we thought to be muesli, but it wasn’t. We actually translated and the package read “cereal flakes” but it was not this either – more like a cereal “powder.” We had it in a glass like a thick smoothie.

When we finished we went back out to get us phone service. Our place has Wifi, but we are planning to be in Brazil for possibly a couple of months. We went to a Vivo shop but their internet was down, so we saw another Vivo shop close by and we went there. My phone only uses E-sim. So we tried my first. But the lady said it was not possible without a Brazil number. Huh… We tried to do Jeff’s as his allows for a sim card. After some time and 13 BRL, we finally got a card and she placed it in his phone. But to get it “charged” we would have to go to the pharmacy, which we experienced before. We went there, but they knew nothing and said we needed to go to a specific Vivo store in the Amazonas Shopping Mall. This was 5 km or just over 3miles! We went back to our place by way of a local place near us to get water. Our place had a 19 L bottle and a dispenser, but it was empty. That was not nice. We also got some food for lunch.

Once at our place I made up a coleslaw as Jeff researched. The slaw hit the spot as we were feeling veggie deprived. We had it with some sesame seed covered rolls. We stayed in due to it being the hottest part of the day – 94° – and did a load of laundry. Around 1600, Jeff E-hailed an Uber to take us to the Amazonas Shopping Mall. We finally found the Vivo shop, as Jeff waited I went to a Carrefour Hypermart in the mall. We haven’t been in one of these for some time. I found most of our list, except PB – this just isn’t a thing in Brazil, as I recall, we had trouble before. Anyway, I finished and went back up to the Vivo. He was finally being helped but three people ended up working it out with help from Vivo online service!!! That just seemed crazy! But it was accomplished after one hour.

We went back to our place via another Uber. The traffic in Manaus is a bit chaotic as they pull up to the lights fitting more cars than the amount of lanes and motorcycles squeeze in wherever they can. But we saw more murals on the sides of tall buildings and walls. Manaus is a large city 2.2 million people and you can drive here as roads connect to it, kind of. There are no bridges over the Amazon, so a short ferry is needed if you need to cross.

Anyway, it was just after six when we arrived back at our place. We had a French supper: wine, cheese, bread and some melon and stayed-in for the rest of the evening.